


Buried deep within, There's a human

by orphan_account



Category: teen wolf - Fandom, tw - Fandom
Genre: Chemo signals, Derek Has Issues, Derek is bad with feelings, Everybody knows, Everyone Has Issues, First Kiss, Idiots in Love, M/M, Pining, Pining Stiles, Stiles Has Issues, Stiles is bad with feelings, They love each other, bad communication skills, hahaha idiots, mutual feelings, otp, really they're just being dumb, they both have problems, they tell everyone but each other, they're both idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 19:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1577210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AKA the one where Stiles and Derek are both shit with feelings, and they need other people to tell them how they feel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Buried deep within, There's a human

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my lovelies! Please give kudos and comments! They really help with motivation and/or skill development!

It had been a year since Stiles had started pining after Derek. Twelve months since the man gave Scott back his inhaler. Three hundred and sixty five days since his crush on Lydia Martin had vanished. Fifty-two weeks of unrequited feelings.

A year. 

Sometimes it hurt to think about, but other times Stiles figured it was for the best. Derek didn’t love him back. He didn’t even think, that after all that had happened, Derek was capable of love. And Stiles understood.

He wasn’t insensitive, He understood that Derek had issues- _hell, they all did-_ that no one would ever be able to fix.

Derek always seemed to get hurt whenever he opened up to anyone… So Stiles didn’t risk it. He didn’t tell Derek.

 

However, that didn’t mean the he didn’t know.

Derek hadn’t smelt love as strong as that in years, maybe even in his entire life.

Wherever Stiles was, the scent of sadness, loneliness and-it was aching and longing- love followed. And it made Derek’s chest ache with melancholy. It wasn’t the same sort as he’d felt when the fire happened, or when Jennifer ended up being the Darach.

It was a sort of longing sensation that felt like it was swallowing the wolf whole, drowning him with an urge to make Stiles feel nothing but good emotions. 

But, Derek had no idea how to tell Stiles, or if the loving emotions were directed towards him. So Derek didn’t tell Stiles. He acted callous around the teenager, which only made the smell of sorrow stronger, and the scent of love be muted and dull. 

When Cora and her brother were driving to South America, she brought it up.

“When are you going to tell him?”

Derek didn’t respond. He only looked out at the road and ignored every one of his sister’s attempts at getting him to answer her.

 

Stiles was brave enough to face down death, but even the thought of confessing his feelings to Derek made him… scared.

Derek already tended to give him a cold shoulder, and telling him was daunting… what if Derek refused to even be near him after that?

The thought made Stiles shudder.

But in his dreams, when they weren’t nightmares, he found the words to tell the wolf, and they ended up together.

“You’re acting even worse than you did when you liked Lydia…” Scott said to him on a Monday after the one-year-mark.

Stiles shrugged haphazardly.

“It’s nothing… I’m fine.” He said, hoping to stop his friend from worrying.

 “Stiles, only people who aren’t fine say that they are. What’s up?” His friend pressed, refusing to drop the topic.

 “I…  I want someone, but we… we just aren’t right for each other.”

“Derek?” Scott asked, voice sombre. 

“Am I really that obvious?” Stiles asked, looking down at his feet. 

“This is going to sound weird, but I can smell it on you… You smell sad most of the time, but whenever you’re around him it gets worse.”

 “You can tell who I like by how sad I am?”

 “No… It doesn’t just smell like you’re sad. It smells… It smells like love.” 

_Oh. Well, fuck._

“If you can smell, that means he can too, doesn’t it?”

“Probably.”

“Well, I’m fucked.”

Scott’s brows furrowed and his lips pursed.

“No you aren’t… Derek smells like that around you too.” 

It was precisely fifty-three weeks after meeting the wolf that Stiles found out that his feelings weren’t unrequited.

 

 Derek didn’t find out the same way.

Stiles had come over, twitchy, tired and irritable one morning, saying something about needing to sleep, but “I can’t sleep at my place cuz it’s dad’s day off…”.

 

Derek had agreed to let Stiles get some sleep on his couch, so long as Stiles went to school at some point during the day.

Stiles had ignored everything Derek said after he’d received permission to go to sleep.

Stiles was curled up in a ball on the sofa, blankets around his legs, but not any other part of his body. Derek didn’t have anything better to do, so he watched Stiles sleep, finding that, even when he was resting, Stiles couldn’t stop moving.

The smell of fear was what made Derek realize that Stiles’ twitchiness while asleep wasn’t normal.

 The boy was letting out strangled sounds of pain in his slumber, fists holding the couch cushions in a death grip.

“D-der…” Stiles mumbled, voice quivering. Derek raised a brow, listening more closely to what Stiles was talking about in his sleep.

“Derek… don’t leave me… don’t leave me alone… please, I love you…” 

Three hundred and seventy seven days after meeting Stiles Stilinksi, Derek found out how the younger boy felt.

 

But they weren’t going to talk about it. They both revelled slightly in the satisfaction of knowing they loved one another, but they were both too gutless to tell each other. So they told everyone else.

Every time Lydia would ask him why he didn’t just tell the wolf, Stiles would reply with, “What am I supposed to say to him, Lydia? I’ve been counting how many days it’s been since we met? He’ll think I’m some sort of crazy stalker, not that I’m in love with him… wait, are stalkers in love with the people they stalk?”

 

Derek didn’t have anyone, except Peter, to talk to about Stiles, and Peter wasn’t exactly what Derek would consider a confidant.

He’d probably tell Derek to “Grow the fuck up, and grow a pair.”

 

So he talked to Aiden, who talked to Lydia, who told Scott, who told Stiles.

 

The next time they saw each other, they both shared fond smiles, and maybe, while no one was looking, they shared a soft first kiss.

Stiles didn't smell sad or lonely, and neither did Derek.

But they didn't tell each other.


End file.
